Sri Lankan Life, Culture, Travel, Information, News

Many of us women whether we are working, studying or at home we tend to be conscious of ourselves. Well I guess it is a part and parcel of being a woman. No way are we ready to be caught with foul smells.

That is what my topic today is all about. If you are thinking of purchasing a Fa body spray well I hope this review would help you! I have been using the FA body spray for quite sometime now from the my working days. Well, the FA body spray I use comes with the concept of 100% free alcohol! So if you are looking for alcohol free – FA would certainly be a good option.

Well the smell of the FA perfumes in general are good and certainly the one I am reviewing about today ‘Rose Fresh’ certainly comes with a good smell. Well how long does it last? I would say may be about 5 to 6 hours, but by the end of the 6th hour the smell is very faint! But at least it would ensure we are not caught with a foul smell!

A problem I have faced with this perfume is that if you do not shake the bottle well it leaves a white patch on your body or dress. Like a powder patch that does not come off easily! Yes so whatever hurry you might be in you really need to shake the bottle well! This ‘white patch’ problem is more frequent after a month or so of purchase! Well I think this could also because there is no alcohol in the perfume!

Overall I would give this perfume a rating of 3.5/5!! Do you use this product?? What do you have to say about it??

been four years since I purchased my Samsung Champ (GT – C3300K). I bought it in the year 2010 for Rs. 10,500/= I really think it was worth the money. The full touch option has made many people say “Oh this must be an expensive phone!” “Wow a full touch phone!”

I’m not this really smooth phone user. I have dropped my phone many times and it still seems to work! The only thing I have done is change the battery twice in these 3 years of usage. I hope to use my phone for another year or so :)

Well when it comes to features I would say it is quite a basic phone with today’s phones having real WOW factors. My phone Camera quality is just 1.3Megapixels which means the photo quality is quite low. But since I’m not a photo maniac its fine with me. The sound quality is quite good and this phone also comes with a stylus.

The other flaw of the phone that really frustrates me is though I can send emails through this phone I’m unable to attach files. So even in case of an emergency I am unable to send attachments through my phone. Also some photo formats downloaded from the internet cannot be viewed on the phone. GIF file formats cannot be set as wallpapers which is really sad :( coz this means that no animations can be set as the wallpaper.

This phone also means no Wi-Fi and no Infrared sending. Yes you do have the bluetooth option though.

Then on the plus side you can listen to the radio without having to hunt down your headset (Yay!!!) And I really love the sleek design of the phone and can even take out my phone from the purse when I am surrounded by a crowd of iPhones!!!

I think this would be a perfect option if you are looking for a simple phone with a real ‘beautiful’ look and have a strained budget.

I have been using the Dove Damage Therapy Intense Repair shampoo for quite sometime now. May be about 2 to 3 years. I am really satisfied with this product. I have kind of curly thick unruly hair that gets knotted easily.

The conditioner really works wonders with the knots. It detangles the hair like no other conditioner I have used before and I have kind of tried many products. I wash my hair regularly using the shampoo and once the shampoo has been completely washed off I use the conditioner. I leave it on for about 5 mins and then rinse it off.
The hair is then smooth to comb. And believe me smooth for my type of hair is really a wonder. Well with split ends I would say it hasn’t worked 100%. I still have splits ends though it has reduced but you really can’t expect it to work wonders with split ends.

I thought it would also be best to give you some customer rankings also. The Make up Alley website had listed this product and the following ranking was given by customers:

There were 70 reviews and this was what the total ranking summed up to:

Average Rating: 4.4 / 5

84% would buy again

Package Quality: 4.1

(Source: http://www.makeupalley.com/)

I usually purchase the BIG bottles so that I could use it for quite sometime. For me the big bottles last for about 2 to 3 months and I use it up to about 3 times a week. So I feel that it really is worth going for the big bottles. The last time I purchased it the shampoo cost me Rs. 560 and the conditioner cost me Rs. 350.

Have you used this shampoo? Does it work for you as it did for me? Let me know what you think by leaving your comments!!!

Sri Lanka News Online will now be providing you reviews on products, so that you will get to know the REAL LIFE experiences of REAL PEOPLE before you purchase products.

We will now be telling you everything you need to know about shopping in Sri Lanka. From food to clothing to fashion accessories and much much more.

You can also share your experiences with us, whether it is with a product or an outing. Not only in the form of comments but we will actually be giving you the opportunity to publish your article on our website after it is verified by the team of administrators.

Below you can see Google search engine statistics that show the number of times Search Engine Optimisation or SEO Sri lanka related word phrases (known as keywords/terms) are were being searched locally in Google every month. This shows that Sri Lankan people and businesses are slowly but surely realizing the value of Internet Marketing via SEO or Search Engine Optimisation.

This is good news for the SEO service providers in Sri Lanka. That is because for a long time local SEO specialist have been providing their services for foreign businesses and websites only. Now it looks like businesses and people in Sri Lanka are also interested in getting their SEO services.

However the problem starts here. Seeing this demand, we see many people, specially in the Sri Lankan Web Design and advertising industries claiming they are SEO experts too and charging high rates from clients for their services. Its okay to charge high rates if they delivery ROI for businesses and websites for their services.

However we see many socalled SEO experts in Sri Lanka who can’t even do SEO optimization and rank their own websites for competitive search terms locally are claiming to be SEO experts. Zeeron Solutions gives a good example of such a local company and how to spot a dubious SEO expert in the article called, Questionable SEO Company In Sri Lanka.

In addition recently, I also heard about a Colombo businessmen who paid 40,000 rupees for several months to a “Internet Marketing specialist” and got in return at the end only a dubious looking Facebook fan page for his local business with 500 likes (all from irrelevant foreigners).

I think the reason many businesses get caught with dubious SEO specialist is because many of these businesses and advertisers in Sri Lanka still have no clue about what is SEO and don’t do their homework of researching about SEO and finding good experts.

They hear about the online marketing success stories of foreign companies and think to jump in the band wagon. They just hire the first SEO company or specialist they come across to optimise there websites and get more business through the Internet.

Our local marketing agencies, web design companies and IT specialist also get request from customers for SEO and Internet Marketing. Most often they are experts in their fields. But when it comes to SEO they are inexperienced. Most probably they have read a few articles about SEO and think they know to do SEO for websites. So they take on SEO jobs and charge the industry standard high rates from the unsuspecting customers.

This cycle seems to playing out with many big and small companies. The end result is companies and business realise it sooner or later that these SEO experts are only taking there money and there is no return for their investments and give up SEO and Internet Marketing. If things goes like this people will form a very bad opinion about SEO and Internet Marketing. That is bad for all involved.

This is how the Pettah Moratuwa public transport buses looked like in the 1970’s. Looking at the background of the photo I think this was taken when the bus was passing the Wellawatha-Dehiwela bridge in Galle road.

Sri Lanka is under water again…. Here are some pictures of flooded bits of roads I encountered on my way to Colombo today morning.
I encountered FOUR such flooded places in the roads on my way today from Wattala To Colombo. This flooded bit of road is in the place called Pansala Junction in Hunupitiya, Wattala area close to Kelaniya. It is in the 261 bus route where the Pettah- Mahara Handiya bus goes.

I hear there were similar places all around Colombo and suburbs with roads partially under water making traffic jams and causing difficulty. Every year or two there is an unusually high Monsoon rain fall to Sri Lanka and we see roads go under water like this. Why do roads get flooded like this every year or so?

This photo shows how they were clearing the road in one place using a backhoe loader and digging the water canals deeper. Don’t know how effective it is because the water level was still the same even after some digging.

Its causing great difficulty to those using these road whether they walk or travel by vehicle. There are sometimes severe traffic jams. Because of such flooding roads sometimes buses and taxis don’t want go through these roads and people have to walk for miles. My father-in-law got caught like this when the Buses and three-wheelers stoped going in the 261 Bus Route when buses because of flooded bit of road you saw in the first picture. How can office people and passersby walk thorough knee deep water with there office suit/dress when the roads are like this?

Have you heard about the new shopping and service centers coming up in the Colombo Southern E1 expressway? I got some photographs of them on the way to Galle recently. Here they are.

I took these photos using my normal Nokia phone’s camera. They aren’t high quality photos but you can see the new buildings of the southern expressway shopping and service center coming up nicely. They looked good like a giant steel crescent rising out the road sides.

This is how they look when you pass it on just in front of it on the expressway. There is a high bund built right in front I think to prevent vehicles that may accidentally slip and getting hit on the buildings. That’s a good precaution. There is access point roads also built with this so motorist can drive to the shopping center. The road you see in the above picture outside of our lanes road barriers is actually the access road for people who are coming out of the service center to rejoin the expressway.

I was impressed by its size too. This is a massive building. You can see how big it is by comparing part of the shopping and service center with the tiny three-wheeler that’s parked in front of it. You won’t notice how big it is when you speed alone the highway at 100kmph but if you go near it I think you will really appreciate its size.

There were two buildings like this one in each side of the road. Soon the motorist traveling on the Colombo Southern Highway will be able to enjoy breaks and fill up there fuel tanks and drink some tea or do a spot of shopping on the way to Colombo or Galle. I heard that there are going to be shopping shops for tourist, fashion stores, supermarket as well as fuel stations and restaurants in this Southern highway service centers so who knows, it might even become more interesting and jam packed in future than our only shopping mall in Majestic City, Bambalapitiya.

There are also a couple of smaller half circle roofed outer building alone side the big building. I think those are going to be the fuel pumping petrol sheds while the main building will be for restaurants and shopping stores.

One of the most discussed topics in Sri Lanka today is the the unrest in our neighbourly Maldive islands with the democratically elected president Mr. Ibrahim Nasheed’s resignation. Many Sri Lankan websites and bloggers have been writing a lot about it. But these articles focus almost exclusively on current Maldivian politics and maybe some bits of Maldivian history. However among these I came across a rather different kind of blog post written in Sinhala language with a title saying something like, “What Should Be Sri Lanka’s Strategy on the Future of Maldives!” It’s a very thought provoking article because I don’t think many Sri Lankans have ever thought about the enormous geo-political and strategic advantage Sri Lanka has in possibly taking control of the Maldives territory when that country sinks into the Indian Ocean in the near future.

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Google Satellite map of Maldives and Sri Lanka

If you are not familiar with the Maldives you may wonder what all this talk about the country sinking is. Even though the country has 298 square kilometers of land and about 1200 islands, the highest point of the Maldives is said to be just 2 meters or 7 feet. The average ground level of the country is 1.5 meters or about 5 feet above sea level. This has made Maldives officially the lowest country in the world!

Now with global warming, the sea level is expected to rise a meter or two in the Indian Ocean by the end of the this 21st century. So sadly it is very likely we may witness a slow sinking or submerging of the majority of the Maldives within our lifetime. The Maldives may be the Atlantis lost to the sea in the 21st century.

What Will Maldivian People Do When The Maldives Sinks?

Maldives currently has a population of about 400,000. So when the country sink into the ocean what are these people going to do? Their only option will be to migrate to other countries. As climate refugess these people can get visa to most countries of the world. I heard sometime back that Australia and some other coutries had said they will grant citizenship to Maldivians when it sinks. But in recent years the Maldivian government has given serious attention to this issue. They say they don’t want to be climate refugees living on dole-out. So they have setup a special fund using money from their booming tourism industry to buy land in foreign countries like Australia, India and Sri Lanka. So one day when the country submerges Maldivian people will have their own land in foreign countries to move to.

Who Will Control Maldivian Territory Without Local People Or Visible Land?

If as predicted, the sea level rises a meter or two the majority of Maldives land will submerge and the local population will have to leave the country and become citizens in foreign countries. In that case even though the Maldivians may retain rights to the lands and territory they will not likely be able to function as an independent country with a government would.

Also though the country will become inhabitable for normal living, tourist resorts that are raised above sea level and built can will still function in even when Maldives goes underwater. So big question arises when their is no local population and government, who will control the current Maldivian territory?

My guess is it will be one of these following global or regional power houses. As it is situated in the middle of the Indian Ocean in one of the worlds busiest shipping lanes whoever controls Maldives territory will wield a lot of geo-political power.

1. The Indians

2. The USA (Another Diego Garcia for the US In the Indian Ocean?)

3.The Chinese

4. NATO

5. Britain with Europe

There is a slim chance for even Sri Lanka to take control of the Maldivian territories when the country submerges. That is if we our Government and private sector can build a strong partnership with Maldivians now like investing and consolidation on Maldivian tourism and other sectors and most importantly inviting them to settle in Sri Lanka and making sure the largest share of Maldivians who migrate settle in Sri Lanka.

Have you tasted Sri Lankan Malay foods? Frankly, until recently I handn’t. So I went with a friend to have dinner at this place auspiciously called as the, “Malay Restaurant” in Dehiwala Hill Street.

When we went we saw they had several special Malay dishes I wanted to tryout like Malay Dum Buriyani, Mee Goreng Egg Noodles and Malay pickle mixed Arabic rice. In addition they also had other general Sri Lankan food like various kinds of mouth watering Buriyani, Pittu, Parata, Naan Rottis, Lamprais, Burgers and Sandwiches. These food looked good too. I think people generally like this restaurant if I were to go by the crowd of people stopping their vehicles and waiting for their take away food order in front of the Malay restaurant.

Because we can’t taste all the dishes at once, my friend and I settled on a special Malay rice dish called “Nasi Goreng” mixed wit Sea Food. The top photo here shows the Malay rice dish we got (which I photographed before eating so that I may one day write about it here on Sri Lankan News Online) . I assure you this Nasi Goreng rice dish stuff tasted as good as it looked. It had a unique taste of its own. If you really want to know the taste like any food cousines its hard to describe but imagine something like what sea food like cuttle fish and buriyani rice mix dish taste like. They also had this Nasi Goreng rice dish with Chicken, Beef or Mutton to select but we went with the sea food.

Their menu card was surprisingly detailed about the special Malay foods they had on it. For instance this Nasi Goreng rice dish was describe as made out of basmathi rice, stir fried vegetables, pineapple stew, Chutney, egg Omelette and Chilli Paste.

While their dinner with this Malay spice rice stuff was excellent, I was disappointed and felt cheated out with what I got served for dessert. You see, for dessert on their menu we could select 1) Wattalappam, 2) Cream Caramel, 3) Ice Cream Topped Fruit and lastly 4) Fruit Triffle. The first three dessert are their in almost all Sri Lankan restaurants so my friend and I thought to go for Fruit Triffle. That was a bad idea. Their Fruit Triffle turned out to be nothing more than Custard Pudding topped with Jelly. Add insult to injury, it was premade and was a very small quantity in a small yoghourt cup like disposable plastic container. Not worth Rs. 50 let alone Rs. 150/= we were charged for the dessert.

But despite the bad experience with that dessert I’d recommend this restaurant for their well made and special Sri Lankan food belonging to the small Malay community of this island. Its not every where you find authentic Malay food restaurants in Sri Lanka like this one. So if anyone wants to try out Malay food in Sri Lanka this will be a good place tryout.

Price wise this restaurant is a middle class Sri Lankan restaurant with food not very cheap nor very expensive. The one portion of asi Goreng rice dish we got was Rs. 380 and it was enough for two hungry 25 year old guys. The place caters to the middle to lower upper class citizens of Sri Lanka I think but it suitable to take even a foreign tourist guest you have. It is also a very busy place (specially on weekends) so you have to wait at least half an hour before they serve the food. Take away orders are not that delaying and they also seem to get lot of takeaway orders on small call center like reception area they got here. I must add a word about the the restaurant’s staff. They are not the most friendly or cooperative but that maybe because I caught them at the busy time.

Overall they do have some very tasty and special Malay food dishes with Malay sounding terms (they give a full glossary like menu leaflet, see in the photo below). So you might like to try out these Sri Lankan Malay food stuff sometime here.

Update: This Malay food restaurant also has a good updated website with food prices, contact details etc. at www.malayrestaurant.lk . Their sites homepage says, the restaurant, located at the heart of Hill Street at No. 115, Hill Street, Dehiwela with a well equipped kitchen attached, which recently underwent expansion and the restaurant too underwent expansion to accommodate more dining guests, and will be very soon to accommodate four fold of our present capacity of dining guests.

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